Old Karlson speaker cab design

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Re: Old Karlson speaker cab design

Postby pfl2049 » Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:06 pm

Hey...I saw the same cabinet...almost on a set of speakers selling on ebay. They had a pair of Stephens 15 inch FR's in them. In fact I just described this cab in the FR forum since I thought they might work well with a pair of JBL 123 12" 16 ohm FR speakers I have. The difference in the two cabs is that the separating board provided a horizontal communication with the upper chamber and a vertical rectangular exit to the 'horn'.
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Re: Old Karlson speaker cab design

Postby EWBrown » Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:02 pm

There were multiple variations on the Karlson cabinet design, the original was designed for 15 inch drivers, and the "coupling" was different from this cab's slotted porting. In either case, the full range drivers tended to be "shouty" and harsh, the use of a cab-top HF horn eliminates that issue.
I've even seen some photos of a scaled-down version for 8 inch full-range drivers, but haven't actually seen or heard any of them.

FWIW, the Karlsons can be operated in the normal vertical orientation, or laid flat on the back of the enclosure, though the HF speaker(s) would have to be situated separately. Try different locations in the room, they are best when located against a wall, in either location, rather than out in the center of the room (they are not bad in this mode, just the full lower octave response could be compromised).

Stay away from the modern low-efficiency 80-something dB drivers, unless you have lots of watts to spare.

/ed B
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